6 
THE ENTOMOLOGIST’S WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
JOURNAL OF ENTOMOLOGY. 
To the Editor of the ' IntcUiyencer,* 
Sir, — When an author shall address to 
the Entomological Society a comj)laint 
of delay in the publication of his papers, 
I will undertake to say that he will meet 
with every attention and consideration ; 
but as there is not any such complaint 
before the Society I decline to dispute 
with a self-elected champion of those who 
have felt so little the injury done to them 
that they have not thought it worth their 
while to say a word in their own behalf. 
I might show that Dr. Gray is wrong in 
the most of his facts, and not right in 
his argument; that the ‘Journal’ has 
already fallen into the very same fault of 
delay charged to the Society’s ‘ Transac- 
tions,’ and much more in point; but to 
what end ? “ The beginning of strife is 
as when one letteth out w'ater,” and so I 
am quite content that Dr. Gray should 
have the advantage of the last word, and 
to let what he has written or may write 
pass for what it is worth, of which matter 
every one interested can judge. 
I am. Sir, 
Yours, ■Stc., 
J. W. Douglas. 
Lee, 
March 22, 1861. 
Philonthus scutatus, Eric., Hardy, 
Kraatz. 
To the Editor of the 'Intelligencer* 
Sir, — The notice in the last ‘Intelli- 
gencer’ (p. 190) relative to this insect, 
appears to me to betray either the most 
deplorable ignorance or the lack of com- 
mon honesty on the part of its author. 
It is now nearly fifteen years since the 
following admirable description of the 
species in question was published in ‘ A 
Synopsis of the Berwickshire Species of 
Staphylinidae, by Mr. James Hardy,’ in 
the Proceedings of a provincial Natu- 
ralist’s Club, replete with valuable papers 
and observations by some of the most 
gifted naturalists of our time. 
“ 4. P. SCUTATUS (Erickson, Gen. et 
Spec. Staph. 438). About the size of 
F. (aminatus, but less broad and more 
parallel; head orbiculate, a little nar- 
rower than the thorax, and with the 
thorax brassy black, shining and polished, 
and under a lens minutely and very ob* 
soletely punctulate ; thorax not so broad 
as the elytra, slightly narrowed in front, 
and subsinuated on the sides behind, 
the punctures of the dorsal series with 
the space between the two last in each 
row widest, all the punctures small ; elytra 
of rather a pale brassy green, thickly and 
finely punctate, shining, and as well as 
the abdomen griseous-brown pubescent; 
the latter beneath with the fourth seg- 
ment of the male lengthened at the apex 
and nearly covering the fifth ; antennae 
and legs black ; tarsi piceous or ferrugi- 
nous, the anterior slightly dilated in 
both sexes. Length 4^ — 5 lines. 
“ Philonthus cognatus, Stephens, 111. 
M. V. 229 ; Philonthus lucens, Stephens, 
Manual, No. 3136. 
“Not uncommon under stones; on 
heaths and old pastures ; in spring and 
autumn ; and occasionally under bark of 
trees. 
“ Penmanshiel, Coldingham Moor, 
Dulaw, and the sea-banks near Berwick, 
J. H. Dunglass Dean, Dr. Johnston .” — 
‘ Proceedings of the Berwickshire Natu- 
ralist’s Club,’ Vol. ii. No. 5, p. 241. 
(1847). 
This species has, moreover, been re- 
corded in two other publications, which 
should be in the hands of every student 
of British Coleoptera, viz., by Messrs. 
